http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
NEWARK, N.J. | Like a rock almost submerged in a river,
the gubernatorial candidate stands at 7:30 a.m. amid a
torrent of rail commuters. Some shake hands, some wish
him well, some vent as he nods to suggest interest, even
empathy. Such small courtesies and harmless
hypocrisies--the sweet nonsense of democratic
politics--make terrorism seem distant.

But Bret Schundler,
former mayor of Jersey City, where terrorists prepared
their 1993 attempt to collapse one World Trade Center
tower into the other, is standing 20 yards from the Penn
Station newsstand that employed the two Arabs who,
when arrested on a train in Texas after the Sept. 11
attacks, were carrying considerable cash, hair dye and
box cutters.

Those attacks inflicted collateral damage on Schundler's
campaign. His opponent, James McGreevey, mayor of
Woodbridge and former state senator, nearly beat
then-Gov. Christie Whitman four years ago, so he is known
statewide. New Jersey, lacking television stations, is an
expensive state for campaigns because candidates buy
their television time in New York and Philadelphia. New
Jersey's campaign law caps general election spending at
$8.4 million in gubernatorial races, so until late in
campaigns candidates usually rely on free media--routine
campaign reporting--to communicate their messages. But
there has been less of that because of Sept. 11.

Schundler has almost too many messages. McGreevey,
as bland as oatmeal and less nourishing, may float to
victory on the state's Democratic tide. Schundler is a
Niagara of ideas, many of which he tested in 9 years of
reinvigorating Jersey City. In that city, which overlooks Ellis
Island and the Statue of Liberty, more than 40 percent of
the people do not speak English in their homes. Taxes
came down, crime plummeted and the real estate
appreciation rate was the nation's third-fastest.

A former all-state high-school football tackle, Schundler
graduated from Harvard, did well on Wall Street and in
1992 at 33 became Jersey City's first Republican mayor
since 1917. He wants to undo the urban liberalism in which
government itself is the dominant interest group,
incessantly lobbying itself for "compassion'' toward itself. He has controlled his
tendency to be overbearing, and at a grade school here he was deft and
congenial in refuting two vigorous but civil adults who attacked his arguments for
school choice.

Another dimension of his "empowerment conservatism''--which has made him
better known in conservative circles nationwide than he is in most of New
Jersey--is an echo, 70 years on, of Huey Long's cry "Every man a king.''
Schundler would enlist "the miracle of compounding'' to make everyone a
millionaire. He would have the state match contributions to IRAs of up to $250
each year for all workers between ages 16 and 30. He assumes a 12.1 percent
annual return (12.07 is the average of the S&P 500's annual return for the periods
1926-2000 and 1950-2000). The tax-free compounding of IRAs over 35 to 49
years "can transform an investment of $3,750, matched by the state, over 15
years into the possibility of $1 million at retirement.''

Schundler used to say "I'm not a conservative, I'm a revolutionary,'' and he still
wants to shake things up. Unfortunately for him, but understandably, Americans
may feel averse to more shaking just now. So Schundler also has a traditional
appeal, proposing to scratch a perennial New Jersey itch.

New Jersey is 8.4 million people of many colors and creeds and one obsession:
driving. Four years ago the issue that nearly defeated Whitman was the state's
high--the nation's highest--auto insurance rates. This year Schundler is promising
to end tolls on the Garden State Parkway. Britain is an island, Egypt is a river, and
New Jersey is a stream of commuter traffic, some of which has to stop frequently
at toll plazas. Schundler says the plazas were supposed to be removed long ago,
when the original parkway bonds were paid off. Besides, he says, it costs $55
million to collect the $185 million in tolls, so it is not worth the aggravation.

This is a little issue, but in electoral arithmetic, little things add up. Even games.

Schundler caught a break when the Philadelphia Phillies did not make the
baseball playoffs, which would have distracted southern New Jersey from politics,
but suffered another blow Monday when the Yankees advanced to the second
round, thereby prolonging a northern New Jersey distraction. It is an axiom that
many voters pay little attention to campaigns until after the World Series. But
because baseball's season was suspended after the attacks and then extended a
week, a seventh game of the Series would be two days before Election Day.
More collateral
damage.